Menifee planners continue to face storm clouds

The Menifee Planning Commission for the last year has been at the center of a political storm, and it’s not because of some controversial shopping complex or housing project it approved, or didn’t approve.

A former commissioner, Marc Miller, has filed a civil lawsuit against the city, accusing Menifee officials of yanking him off the board because he doesn’t share their warm and fuzzy feelings for developers. According to the suit, council members violated a city ordinance because he wasn’t dismissed after a vote of the council — rather, on the whim of one member, Councilwoman Sue Kristjansson, who announced her intention to replace him in January 2012.

Miller first filed suit in July 2012, but last month his attorney, facing a dismissal of the suit, filed an amended complaint she hopes will be more palatable to the judge.

Full disclosure: I’m quite familiar with planning commissions, having served on the Carlsbad Planning Commission from May 2011 until February, when I took a new job with this paper.

Planning commissions, in essence, are the cream of the crop when it comes to a city’s boards and commissions. They’re almost like a junior city council, a roosting place for political appointees council members trust to help them make land-use and zoning decisions.

Planning commissioners are supposed to make their decisions based solely on the law, and their interpretation of the law. Leave the politics to the elected city council; the planning commission is supposed to remain neutral and make objective decisions regardless of the politics that may be involved.

That said, planning commissioners are appointed officials, and they serve at the discretion of a city’s elected representatives. In Miller’s case, Kristjansson was perfectly within her rights to replace him.

What’s unclear is whether she followed proper procedure in getting him off the commission — proper procedure that most likely would have yielded the same result.

At the time, Menifee’s city attorney decided that Kristjansson — who since has been voted off the council — was well within her rights to replace Miller with her own appointee, even though some other council members felt it was illegal and unethical.

I feel sorry for Miller. Since his dismissal he’s suffered a stroke, and I question whether his amended complaint will go any further than his original one.

Still, after reviewing the city’s ordinance on planning commissioner appointments, I can understand why Miller feels he’s been wronged. Although the municipal code gives each council member the right to appoint his or her own commissioner, a commissioner can only be removed by a council vote or by “his or her appointing council member” — appointing council member. In Miller’s case, he was appointed by Councilman Fred Twyman, not Kristjansson. Twyman died in June 2011, and Kristjansson was appointed as his replacement in August.